And yet, as narrative text at the end of the movie reminds us, radium paint continued to be used well into the 1960s, putting countless lives at risk. The case forced a reckoning within American industry, as workers realized they could sue their employers for unsafe working conditions, forcing the latter to better regulate potential dangers. In 1917, scores of patriotic young girls counted themselves lucky to have landed war work at a large warehouse complex in Orange, New Jersey. Still, the women prevailed, and a jury awarded damages of $10,000 to each (roughly worth $150,000 in 2020), along with a $600 (about $9,000 now) a year payment for medical expenses. Explore the haunting story of the Radium Girls, a group of women exposed to lethal amounts of radium while working in watch factories in early 20th-century America. 2 From the initial discovery of radium in 1898 by the Curies to its widespread use in the Golden Age, and finally to its rapid decline, the radium industry has a remarkable. Although the companies ensured that there wouldn’t be any side effects, it was not true. Radium has 33 known isotopes, all of which are radioactive, and the most common and long-lived isotope is Ra-226, which comprises one part per trillion of Earths crust. The watch companies hired women to paint radium on the watch dials. Indeed, by 1928, when the suit finally went to court, two were confined to their beds. Are Radium Watches Safe To Wear Radium watches were very popular back in the 1910s to the 1960s. The reason? They knew many of the women wouldn’t live out the decade. For several years, the “radium girls,” as they were dubbed in the press, battled a company determined to let the proceedings drag on for as long as possible. In the 1920s, a group of five women led by plant worker Grace Fryer decided to sue American Radium. There were three main factories in the United States dedicated to this work, but the most famous is the one in Orange, NJ, where Radium Girls is set. Radium dial painting started gaining traction around 1917 in the United States, to provide watches that soldiers heading off to the trenches of Europe could read in the dark. Though Bessie and Jo are based on composites of real people, the story itself is rooted in truth.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |